This term paper explores the phenomenon of spontaneous symmetry breaking in systems with non-abelian gauge symmetry. The most famous example comes from the standard model of particle physics, wherein symmetry breaking is responsible for the masses of the W and Z bosons and the corresponding short range of the weak nuclear force. The electroweak theory will be discussed as well as a more ambitio...

This paper, part I of a two-part project, aims at answering the simple question 'what is spontaneous symmetry breaking?' by analyzing from a philosophical perspective a simple classical model. Related questions include: what does

We study the question of whether spontaneous U(1)R breaking can occur in O’Raifeartaightype models of spontaneous supersymmetry breaking. We show that in order for it to occur, there must be a field in the theory with R-charge different from 0 or 2. We construct the simplest O’Raifeartaigh model with this property, and we find that for a wide range of parameters, it has a meta-stable vacuum whe...

The Higgs mechanism is very powerful: it furnishes a description of the electroweak theory in the Standard Model which has a convincing experimental verification. But although the Higgs mechanism had been applied successfully, the conceptual background is not clear. The Higgs mechanism is often presented as spontaneous breaking of a local gauge symmetry. But a local gauge symmetry is rooted in ...

We show that the topological B ∧ F term in 3 + 1 dimensions can be generated via spontaneous symmetry breaking in a generalized Abelian Higgs model. Further, we also show that even in D dimensions (D ≥ 3), a B∧F term gives rise to the topological massive excitations of the Abelian gauge field and that such a B ∧ F term can also be generated via Higgs mechanism.

One of the most astonishing results of quantum field theory is spontaneous symmetry breaking. One can say that it is the situation when something arises from the quantization. This means that on the quantum level one has something that was not present on the classical level. Coleman and Weinberg [1] write : “ . . . higher-order effects may qualitatively change the character of a physical theory...